


Stories of the Second Self: Fifth Circle of Hell

by John_Steiner



Series: Alter Idem [48]
Category: Urban Fantasy - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:22:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22533925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: The angel, Xaphan Brandt returns to where his trauma all began, Ward Five of the asylum he'd been committed to as a human child. The place where his fifth circle condemnation instilled into Xaphan all his rage, and the birthplace of his pyromantic powers. The most fitting place to end his journey.
Series: Alter Idem [48]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813





	Stories of the Second Self: Fifth Circle of Hell

"Hello darkness, my old friend," he said to himself on entering the ruins of the asylum he'd once been committed to as a child.

Even before his angelic traits grew, he'd feared the dark and everything about it. He'd sworn that creatures lurked there, and his parents tried one therapist after another. Into his adolescence Nyctophobia persisted, and then one day the monsters believed to be his imagination became real.

Proceeding further into the institution, he found the room that he'd been kept in. Seeing the door missing from the rotted frame reminded him of how he last left his room. His cell, to put a more apt name to it.

The orderlies were busy with another teen patient who sudden became wracked with pain. By the time they bothered to check on her she'd already started growling, and two grown men were thrashed and shredded in her effort to escape.

See, that that was another dark secret about this place. Yeah, the psyches weren't terribly concerned with what he told them, and assumed as his parents did, that he was delusional. However, the orderlies knew when his wings emerged, and other patients showed signs of their second selves. They knew first, because a couple of them were sexually assaulting patients, himself included.

The weird thing is they didn't seemed to have a gender preference. It must've been the power over people's lives that got to them. As for himself, he would just lay there as if dead, but inside he seethed so much he felt on fire. Sometimes, his mind ventured inward, and he saw more than just the real monsters of the new age. He saw magic.

After his other "sessions" with the orderlies, he'd experiment with some of the spells he knew others would draft, though none were written yet. Fire was what he was most in the mood for, and forced it to come to him in his cell. That his own feathers were fire proof was an interesting irony, when came the day the institute fell.

The werewolf girl did a number on the orderlies, but thought nothing of helping anyone else escape, she was so driven to get this place as far behind her as possible. He, on the other hand, saw the need to ensure none were kept in this cursed place ever again.

Realizing his wings came with greater chest strength, he threw the back of his wing against the door over and over until it fell from the twisted hinges. He melted door handles and locks of other cells, and the first orderly to see what he was doing felt the heat of his burning hate.

It wasn't one of the two orderlies who'd been raping patients, but that didn't matter to him. They were all complicit, as far as he was concerned, and they all had to burn. They were as assuredly demonic as the vampires and werewolves he would later purged from the streets.

For when one has wallowed in hell as long as he, demons became readily identifiable. Out of sight of any caring god, he must truly be a fallen son of light, and he'd make heaven pay for abandoning him.

"I honestly wasn't sure how long you'd put off coming back here," came a voice down the hall.

He was sure there was no one there when last he looked, and still he saw no one. Yet, his ears told him someone was standing in front of the fire exit.

"If you've been following me that's the gravest mistake you will have made," he challenged the disembodied voice.

"Not the first time I've heard talk like that, kid," the voice replied.

He suspected that man was at least thirty, but he couldn't gauge his size or anything else about him. The voice did have a faint hint of being used to that lowered pitch of an authority figure.

"You're a cop," he surmised.

"And you're a murderer," the voice replied.

"Based on what?" he threw back in contempt.

"Patrolman Merrill, for one," the cop replied, and appeared with a gesture of having waves his illusion aside.

"Okay, arrest me," he dared, "If you think you can."

"Sure thing," the black Fae cop replied, "Alright, now."

Without warning, he felt darts stab into his back and electrical current applied. He dropped to the floor in spastic jolts from the taser.

Pushed beyond simple exhaustion when the tazing stopped, he was as limp as when being raped by orderlies, only now not by his choosing. Only then did the Fae cop dare come over to put a knee to his back and start cuffing him.

"Xaphan Brandt, you are under arrest for eleven counts of murder and eighteen counts of desecration of a human corpse," the cop said, while ratcheting the cuffs on. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in court. You have the right to legal counsel. If you cannot afford an attorney you will be assigned representation by the court. Do you understand your rights?"

"I am above the court of man," Xaphan protested through a gasp, though his face burned with hate. "And beyond the judgment of your god."

"That's cute," the cop replied and patted Xaphan on the shoulder. "I'm actually a Buddhist. We don't have gods."

"How'd you figure this one out, Lieutenant?" the other cop asked.

"From that one vampire he burned in the face with a UVC light," the Fae cop replied, "He'd said something to our fallen angel friend here, and it was as if he'd heard something entirely different. Made me think to check psychiatric institutions."

"Including this one?" asked the second cop, who was white and, by all appearances, human. "I remember seeing the news report when this place burned down."

"And that was the other red flag," the Fae cop revealed, "No signs of accelerants and temperatures above two thousand degrees, according to arson investigators."

"Guess with Barnes retiring soon, breaking this case will land you the captain's office for sure," the second cop remarked.

"Only if I'm unlucky," the Fae replied, and then pushed Xaphan. "Alright, let's go."


End file.
